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Alex Presley

Six days ago, the Rays said they have no plans to call up Wil Myers. Six days ago, the Rays lied. They might’ve just lied to make Jim Bowden look stupid. While I appreciate that, Bowden rides around on a Segway, so the Rays were piling on. About two weeks ago, I gave you my Wil Myers fantasy. Lets’ not recapitulate any of that, okay? Let’s not talk about how Myers could hit 20 homers in two-thirds of a season. Or how Myers could hit .280 with solid counting stats. If you want to read about the risk of rookies, go to that post and read that. I’m not here to talk about how Myers is the number one prospect call-up or how he’s worthwhile in all mixed leagues, but won’t be Mike Trout. I’m not going to talk about any of that. Dah! I just did, didn’t I? Damn, you fooled me! Myers is the kind of player that probably has the most value right now. He’s going to be a top round fantasy guy. Eventually. Yes, I just did the douchey one word sentence thing. Right now, he’s around a 4th outfielder. Of course, he’s draped in glorious upside. You could yell at him the same way you do to a Home Depot employee, “Hey, Toolsy!” For the future, he reminds me of an in-his-prime Matt Holliday. He’s a 30-ish homer, 15-ish steal guy with a solid average. Eventually. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The .245 AVG is going to look ugly next March but 31 HRs and 80+ R/RBI has been nirvana for anyone (like Rudy) who plucked Josh Reddick off free agency in shallow leagues this year.  The power is real and, unlike the last A’s power hitter (Jack Cust), he is an above average fielder.   So the A’s now have 2/3 of a phallic OF foundation with Reddick and Yoenis.  Where is Lance Johnson Jr or Dick Pole Jr when you need them?

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Brandon Beachy left Saturday’s start with a sore elbow.  Usually when pitchers have a sore elbow it means one of two things.  One, they’re going on the DL for a long period of time.  Or two, they’re going to say they’re going on the DL for only 15 days but it will be a long time.  Yeah, those are kinda the same things, but it adds a little flare when I break them up into two things.  My English Comp professor would’ve said, “Grey, you add filler on top of your filler then you put commas where they’re not supposed to be then, add more filler.  Have you considered a math major?”  I told you to sell him about two weeks ago, but I understand how hard it is to sell an overperformer, so many of you were probably stuck with Beachy, or stranded, as the case may be.  I’d DL him and hope for better news heretothen.  Bee tee dubya, I just made up heretothen.  Pretty good, right?  Feel free to use it for the rest of twelve after twenty.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Kris Medlen – The Braves stretched out Medlen, then yo-yo’d all over the place with what he should and would be doing.  Fredi Gonzalez said, “I have enough problems to worry about since I can’t pitch Venters 400 innings this year.”  Now with Beachy’s injury, Medlen remains in the bullpen.  Yup.  Instead, the Braves are filling Beachy’s rotation spot with Jair Jurrjens.  Obviously, the Braves management threw a dart at a board to fill the rotation spot and said dart landed in a nearby toilet.

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We went over Danny Hultzen in our last fantasy baseball podcast, but that was a bunch of jibber-jabbering, you want the facts!  Well, actually, there were some facts in there.  Rudy, for instance, stated he thought Hultzen would be up by June 26th.  Okay, that’s more of an opinion.  Okay, facts.  1) When Hultzen was drafted last year, he was one of the top pitchers in the country and seemed most “major league ready.” 2) “Major league ready” is scout-speak for safe.  3) Fat Jonah Hill fired all the scouts.  4) He throws over 100 MPH.  5) I bet you didn’t know Fat Jonah Hill threw that fast.  6) Hultzen, on the other hand, throws his fastball 91-95 MPH.  7) His ceiling is slightly lower than the top arms in the minors.  G) He walked a bunch of batters when he first arrived at a high level of competition, this might translate to the majors.

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Kendrys returns (or is the verb singular there?) this year, but can’t play every day, and when he does, he needs to DH.  So, since Mark Trumbo fields about as well as Dalton Trumbo fielded commie accusations, it seemed like Trumbo (Mark) would be benched a lot.  In years past, Scioscia would’ve went with some variation of a light-hitting middle infielder with a good glove — “You can’t teach moxie!  Moxie’s innate!  Chone Figgins had so much moxie.  He could’ve played 3rd base, 2nd base and waitressed at a diner from midnight to 8 AM.”  That’s a direct quote from Scioscia’s autobiography, “Crouching Angel, Hidden Drag Bunt.”  But maybe Scioscia learned himself something because Trumbo is playing every day, and hitting well.  Yesterday, he went 2-for-3, 2 runs, 6 RBIs and his 13th and 14th homers.  Right now, Trumbo’s hitting .326.  That’s probably through his ceiling for average, through the ceiling above it and out the roof.  He could hit 50 to 60 points below that.  There’s still plenty of value here.  He’s on his way to 30-plus homers, solid counting stats and 10-plus steals.  Basically, what you hope you get from Pujols at this point.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Scott Downs – And just when you think The Sciosciapath has his harsh mellowed over the closer sitch, he goes and flips the script.  Colvin and CarGo, two lefties, were due up in the ninth, so I’m guessing he went with Downs there for that reason.  I’d continue to hold Frieri, but obviously Downs isn’t out of the picture completely.  He’s kinda photobombing the closer picture, actually.

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Andy Pettitte managed to shut out the Rays yesterday for 7 1/3 IP with only 4 baserunners and 10 Ks.  No wonder why he returned.  He was probably sick of beating his kids at MLB 2K12.  “Dad, we don’t mind you playing our video games while we’re at school, but could you stop spitting tobacco onto our all-terrain robot?”  That’s Andy’s kids after a powwow about how to address the problem.  I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t see this coming.  He wasn’t even that good before he retired.  I guess he just needed 26 months between starts.  If he retired again tomorrow, he’d throw a no-hitter in 2016.  Or he’d win that perfect game contest that MLB is doing with their video game.  Enough with the commercials already.  I liked baseball better when they were a conservative game without the cheap gimmicks.  Bring back the Spiderman web-covered bases!  So, can Pettitte keep this up?  Seems doubtful.  He’s about a 3.75 ERA guy that pitches his home games in not one of the more forgiving parks in a tough division.  But, you know what, he looks no worse than what I’d expect of Oswalt and you’re stashing him, so he’s definitely worth owning.  Anyway, here’s what else we saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Psyche!  Before we get into today’s roundup, wanted to draw attention to the contest we’re holding.  We’re giving away a fifty-five inch LG 3D TV.  The TV comes with a remote control that has a mustache glued on top of it.  I’m kidding.  The mustache is glued on top of the TV.  Go ahead and enter.  It’s free and there’s a chance your significant other might be less inclined to get annoyed with you when you check your teams on a romantic date if you just won a TV.  Anyway II, here’s the roundup:

Colby Rasmus – Watch out Mr.

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In 1992, the last time the Astros had a number one draft pick they skipped over Derek Jeter and drafted Phil Nevin.  As they say, the rest is history.  Or as an Astro fan says, “The rest never happened because I became a Texas Rangers fan.  Go Hamilton!”  This year the Astros weren’t letting it happen again.  With their number one pick, they selected 17-year-old shortstop, Carlos Correa.  To put this in fantasy perspective, the Astros took Ramon Castro 17th overall in 1994.

Please, blog, may I have some more?